Cross-posted from John Cook's Venture Blog

Two University of Washington computer science professors are joining Google's new development office in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood, strengthening the search giant's ties to the largest research institution in the state and bolstering its fight against rival Microsoft.

Brian Bershad Source: UW

Brian Bershad and Craig Chambers -- who together spent more than 30 years at the UW -- will bring "firepower" to the company, said Google vice president of engineering Shiva Shivakumar, who is based in the company's Kirkland office.

"These two are spectacular," said Shivakumar. "They have done some incredibly big things over the last few years. It is a huge deal."

Bershad, who started at Google two weeks ago and has taken a leave of absence from the UW, said he is excited about the opportunity. The 42-year-old, who earned his Ph.D. from the UW in 1990, was being recruited by another large technology company, but decided that Google was the right fit. Declining to name the other company, Bershad repeated several times that he was really happy to be at Google.

Craig Chambers Source: UW

"Google is an amazing place. And this really allows us to do the kind of work we have been doing at smaller scale for real at massive scale and also work with some of the best people in the world who also have gone over to Google in the last couple of years," said Bershad, who previously founded Seattle startups Appliant.com and illumita. "The kinds of problems that exist inside the company are just fantastically interesting and are really drawing people like me and Craig into this very different and pretty exciting world."

Bershad will lead the new Fremont office, which opened last month and already employs 75 people. With plans to grow to a few hundred employees, the Fremont operation will specialize in the systems and infrastructure technologies used to power applications within the Google data center. That's an area of expertise for Bershad.

"Building out those systems actually requires a lot of cutting-edge research," said Shivakumar. "A lot of that work has been going on in Mountain View (Calif.) for the last few years and we wanted to have a second place where we can build up an incredibly high-powered group where we can build out the next generation of a lot of these different systems."

In addition to their impressive resumes in the computing field, the two UW professors also could create a talent pipeline for Google as it looks to compete for the top software developers in the region. One of the reasons why Google chose Fremont for its latest development center is the proximity to the UW.

Shivakumar said they have enjoyed a close working relationship with UW faculty and students over the past three years, recruiting interns and collaborating on research projects. That alliance may strengthen with the addition of Chambers and Bershad.

"We would love to work with all of the UW profs in whatever capacity that we can," said Shivakumar.

Losing two talented professors to Google could be viewed as a blow to the UW computer science department. But Ed Lazowska, the Bill and Melinda Gates chair in the department, doesn't see it that way.

"On the one hand, it is not like we are delighted to see these guys go. But each of them was ready for a change. And I think this is going to wind up being a real plus -- a plus for us, a plus for our students, a plus for collaboration, a plus for Google," said Lazowska, who noted that close to 150 UW computer science students have been hired by Google over the years. "Craig and Brian are guys who have enormous respect among the faculty and students. I think there are going to be a bunch of really exciting projects going on up here."

Bershad agrees, saying that he is looking forward to developing new technologies for Google just a few miles from his offices at the UW.

"The University of Washington has been placing a tremendous number of students at Google over the years. It has been placing them down in Mountain View, it has been placing them in Kirkland. Now, it gets to place them a little bit closer to home," he said. "So this is absolutely not about creating a relationship, it is really about strengthening one."